Sunday, February 16, 2014

Tales from the Crypt

I had the great pleasure last year to read Donald Thomas’ The Secret Cases of Sherlock Holmes, a
book which reimagined several famous murder cases as though they were
Sherlockian adventures. My very favourite of the lot was an ingenious retelling
of the adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton, revealing that it was a
fictionalised account of the death of the notorious blackmailer Charles
Augustus Howell, and turning it into a prequel to The Final Problem. It became one of my new favourite Sherlockian
pastiches.

Naturally, I couldn’t pass up the chance to read more from
this series, so I went with Sherlock
Holmes and the Voice from the Crypt. It’s another collection of Sherlockian
pastiches. There are six of them in all, but one of them is quite short, and
the other (the titular story) is probably novella-length. As with the first
book, Sherlock Holmes is called in to investigate famous mysteries, and helps
the authorities behind-the-scenes. Naturally, Holmes doesn’t take any of the
credit.

The Two ‘Failures’ of
Sherlock Holmes

This is an odd story indeed. First of all, it’s so short.
Second of all, it is really two stories in one. And the famous trials retold in
this story are of such a high profile that it seems odd that Thomas chose to
compress them into one story instead of giving each a full-length retelling. First,
Dr. Watson tells us about the Crippen case, and how Sherlock Holmes was asked
by the defense to look into the matter. Yet despite Holmes’ advice, Crippen
himself refused to cooperate and as a result was sent to the gallows. Next, we
are told of the role Holmes played in Oscar Wilde’s infamous trial, and how his
advice was once again ignored. Overall, it’s an OK story, but not one of my
favourites.

The Case of the
Racing Certainty

This story predates the famous encounter between Sherlock
Holmes and Dr. Watson, and tells of an ingenious attempted swindle. The story
begins with Holmes being hired to investigate the claims of a certain “Major
Montgomery”, a man so lucky that he’s been banned from placing bets in England.
Luckily, he can still place bets through other people, and he’s corresponded
with a generous French backer, asking for certain sums to be betted on certain
horses. His remarkable streak of luck continues, until finally his backer begs
to also be allowed to place a bet of her own on the races…

The story is ingenious, like a Victorian version of The Sting. Holmes meets Lestrade for the
first time and enlists his aid to uncover the swindlers, who seem to have set
their sights on more than one target. It’s a nicely worked plot and adds to the
Canon.

The Case of the Naked
Bicyclists

This is another strange adventure, in which Holmes is asked
to investigate the strange activities of a certain Captain Dougal. A neighbour of
his has observed that the Captain has a bizarre habit of going outside with a
group of nude young women, and having them ride their bicycles in a circle
performing tricks. He is standing in the middle of the group, and the neighbour
is able to observe that he’s enjoying the whole thing very much (if you know what I mean).

This is a good story. It’s a retelling of the Moat Farm
Murders, which might not be as prolific a case as the Crippen case, but which
caused quite a stir in its day. While it’s a good story, I must say it isn’t one
of my favourites. I can’t quite put my finger on why, though.

The Case of the
Sporting Major

A man named Alfred John Monson is accused of murder. It
seems that Major Monson and a friend of his, Edward Scott, were in the company
of one Cecil Hambrough, a pupil of Monson’s, when a shot was fired. When
witnesses arrived on the scene, Hambrough was dead; curiously, he’d taken out a
life insurance policy six days before, and that policy stands to benefit the
major considerably. The forensic evidence against Monson is very black, and it
seems inevitable that he will have an appointment with the hangman in the near
future…

Until Sherlock Holmes steps in. Holmes analyzes the scene of
the crime and comes to the conclusion that Monson is of course innocent, and
proves his case with an analysis worthy of John Rhode’s Dr. Priestley. This is
a scientific murder case with a fairly technical solution, but it’s very neatly
worked out. It might not be to everyone’s taste, but I liked it very much
personally.

The Case of the
Hygienic Husband

If you’ve read novels from the Golden Age of Detective
Fiction, odds are you’ve seen the name of an infamous killer pop up, often when
a husband is suspected of killing his wife. That man’s name is George Joseph
Smith, “The Brides in the Bath Killer”. In this story, that same Smith crosses
swords with Sherlock Holmes. And it’s every bit as good as it sounds. Holmes
not only does a good job reconstructing the crime, there’s also a marvellous bit
of sleight-of-hand from the killer involving wordplay (though I confess I do
not know if this wordplay took place in real life as well). Smith is one of
those all-time famous killers, and this story is one of my favourites, showing
Holmes at his most psychotic when he re-enacts the crime in front of witnesses.
But just as importantly, this is a bit of a warm-up. Sherlock Holmes has
tackled George Joseph Smith in this story. In his next story, he’ll duel with
another famous killer.

The Case of the
Talking Corpse

Imagine, if you will, a series of murders. Young women of
shady reputations are being targeted, and they are dropping like flies.
Paranoia seizes London, and nobody can stop talking about the killer, and who
could be his next victim. You may have guessed that I’m describing the Jack the
Ripper murders, but no, I’m actually talking of the Lambeth Poisoner. It isn’t
quite as catchy a name, but the Lambeth Poisoner was eventually caught and
revealed to be Dr. Thomas Neill Cream.

This is a full-length adventure, longer than any other story
in this collection and probably well into novella-length territory. This is
also one of the highlights of Donald Thomas’ Sherlockian pastiches. It’s a
complex plot with a killer who seems like an absolute madman, and it’s up to
Sherlock Holmes to corner him and put him away. But Sherlock seems almost uninterested
at times, insisting that a “voice from the crypt” will guide them to the
murderer…

The wonderful part of this story is how many of these plot
twists seem like complete nonsense, like something that would have to be invented for the purposes of
fiction. But no, Dr. Cream really was this insane, and that’s what eventually resulted
in his capture.

The ingenious idea behind choosing Dr. Cream as Holmes’
opponent is that his murders recreate the paranoia of the Jack the Ripper
murders without creating yet another Jack
the Ripper vs. Sherlock Holmes story. The market is saturated with those
stories, and Dr. Cream’s story is much less well-known, even though his crimes
were just as deranged as his anonymous counterpart’s. It makes for terrific
reading, and is one of my new favourite Sherlockian pastiches. I can highly
recommend it.

***

Overall, I enjoyed The
Voice from the Crypt. It’s a solid collection of pastiches, and it ends
with two absolute gems to leave you on a high note. If you’re a fan of
Sherlock, or interested in one of these murder cases, these are good stories to
dive into.

2 comments:

Sounds like fun Patrick - interesting to note that Cream is also a major fogue in MURDER ROOMS by David Pirie, the pilot for the shortlined series in which Ian Richardson played Joseph Bell mentoring the young Doyle on forensic science and investigative technique.

It seems Dr. Cream is in the same league as H. H. Holmes -- the kind of real-life maniac who you'd think would be more prominent in fiction, but somehow hasn't got the same amount of notoriety as, say, Jack the Ripper. And though it might sound bloodthirsty to say this, I kind-of prefer seeing them to the Ripper because of this: there's too many Holmes-vs-the-Ripper stories to count, but with those two, the facts are all there for anyone who wants to research them and they can make for just as good -- if not better -- works of fiction.